


Flowers for Armitage

by hello-reylux (She0l)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Accents, Alien Culture, Alternate Universe, Angst, Death, Deviates From Canon, F/M, Family, Flowers, Fluff, Hugs, Humor, IN SPACE!, Jedi Rey, Jokes, Kissing, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Married Characters, Married Couple, Married Life, Millennium Falcon - Freeform, Planets, Post-War, Redeemed Ben Solo, Rey Needs A Hug, Rey Solo, So Married, Storm Trooper, Teasing, True Love's Kiss, Walk Into A Bar, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 12:36:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9123853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/She0l/pseuds/hello-reylux
Summary: “Do you have any idea how much Edelweiss cost?”“Probably an arm and a leg.” Rey replied.Ben waved the metallic fingers on his right hand, “A metal arm and three legs, Mrs Solo.”Rey turned her face away from Ben, hiding her smile from the reminder of their shared family name.“I think… I think he is worth it.”The Falcon’s engine hummed. Ben did not have the heart to say no to his wife.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alania](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alania/gifts).



> This is a great big THANK YOU to my inspiring fam, the SS Reylux discord chat.
> 
> *For non-German speakers, 'Kartoffel' means potato.

“What’s this special flower you’re talking about again, sweetheart?”

“Edelweiss. They’re small, white, and look like stars.”

“Never heard of them, and I’ve been everywhere in the galaxy. _Everywhere_. You know what I’m getting for him, Rey? Corellian wine. When we were in the First Order he practically swam in it.”

The Millennium Falcon blasted in hyperspace. In the cockpit window, the stars blurred like snowflakes in a storm. Ben took the captain’s seat on the left and Rey took the co-pilot’s right, just as she first did with Ben’s father when Chewie got shot, a long time ago.

“Wine can’t be the only gift in the galaxy, Ben. Don’t you like receiving flowers?”

“Who would ever give flowers to the commander of a dignified military regime?”

“No one? Not even Hux?”

“Even he gave me wine for Life Day once. His card said ‘Please don’t choke’.”

“So, you’ve been everywhere in the galaxy but you never stopped to smell the roses?”

“If I stooped down, I’d have been shot in my ass. You wouldn’t like that, would you?”

“The great Kylo Ren, killed with a bang right through his arse.” Rey giggled at the thought.

“Blasters could never graze Kylo Ren.”

“Yet the slightest insult shatters his ego.”

Ben typed the name into the Holonet search engine.

“Says here Edelweiss are mountain flowers. Edelweiss is an endangered species of plant and under New Republic protection _._ Picking them without local permission would slap a heavy fine on us. Why don’t we just order some?” He typed a few more things into the search engine, “Do you have any idea how much they cost?”

“Probably an arm and a leg.” Rey replied.

Ben waved the metallic fingers on his right hand, “A _metal_ arm and _three_ legs, Mrs Solo.”

Rey turned her face away from Ben, hiding her smile from the reminder of their shared family name.

“I think… I think he is worth it.”

The Falcon’s engine hummed. Ben did not have the heart to say no to his wife.

“You’d get them for him whether I come or not, so we might as well pick flowers together.”

Rey leaned over the controls and pecked her husband on the cheek.

 

The planet Shimmer glimmered like its name – shining, solid ice as far as the eye can see. Rey peeked out of the cockpit window at the town valley below. From a bird’s eye view, the mountain range looked like chocolate cookie crumble dusted with powdered sugar. She could taste it on her tongue.

“Scaparus spaceport, this is YT-1300. Requesting a landing pad.” Ben said.

“YT-1300, this is Scaparus spaceport. Yer clear fer landing.”

As Ben lowered the Falcon, the white peaks rose above them, reaching for the bright blue sky. Twenty landing pads surrounded a town of wooden houses, their windows glowing with warm lights. Ships all around them dwarfed the Falcon by fifty years of advanced technology.

As they descended the platform, the cold air smelled clean and clear.

“R-Reminds you of Starkiller Base, huh? F-Freezing.” Rey said and pulled her thick coat around herself. Years after leaving her desert planet, icy climates still shocked his wife. Ben wrapped his own cloak around Rey and pulled her close to him. She leaned into her husband’s warmth.

A crew ground transport whirred past them as it ferried people from an air speeder to the main entrance. They walked into the temperature-regulated customs bay and Rey breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ah ha’ent seen ah YT-1300 since ah was a wee gal.” Said the customs official. “Did yae tra’el throo a waermhool fifty years from the past? Anythin’ tae declare? Ah freigh’er must ‘ave sumthin’ tae declare.”

“None at all. We came here for Edelweiss flowers, we’d like to give them to a special friend. Would you know where we can find some?” Rey said.

“Yer pullin’ mah leg. Edelweiss? Up the moun’ains? Tha’s suicide, tha’ is.”

Ben held up two thousand credits, shining in the light. She stared at them as if hypnotized.

“Ah ken taek ya up the moun’ains m’self, sir.” The customs official said.

“No. No ‘uns goin’ anywhere.”

They turned to see a man in a respectable suit glaring at Ben. He seemed to be a high-ranking officer as the other woman watched him with wide eyes.

“Ah ken smell ah First Order _kartoffel_ when ah see ‘un, an’ this ‘un stinks.”

The room fell in a hush.

“The First Order is finished.” Ben’s voice steeled, “The troopers returned to their home worlds. Its leaders betrayed information, have been incarcerated, or put to death. Scavengers are dismantling the remains of bases and Star Destroyers throughout the galaxy. What more could you want?”

The officer’s hand went inside his jacket. Ben grabbed the hilt of his saber. In the blink of an eye he could separate the man’s head from his body.

The man took out a photograph of a child with bright eyes, grinning with joy.

“Name’s Gaines. Ya took ‘im en med ‘im a trooper. Kin ya tell me wot planet in this go’fo’saken galaxy my son died in? Kin ya?”

A hundred pairs of eyes looked over at Ben. He could sway a few men’s mind with the Force, but he could not sway the minds of all the others. His hand fell to his side.

“No. No ya kent. Ya kent e’en give back ‘is body. Tha’s why we don’ serve First Order ‘ere. Off wi’ ye!”

He spat at Ben’s boots.

“Excuse me. You owe my husband an apology.” Rey bared her teeth.

Ben stepped between her and the officer.

“We don’t want trouble. We just want Edelweiss flowers.” Ben said, more to Rey than to the officer. He knew his wife could chop the man for breakfast.

“Now ya wan’ our Edelweiss too? Shimmer’s flowers are fer Shimmerians. Fook off.”

Rey looked around them for help. The officer woman stared back at her, hands falling to her sides. She took a sharp intake of breath.

“That’s right, _kartoffel_. Fook off.”

 

Ben chose to land in a small village on the planet of Arcasia. Rey stood in her chair to look them, and saw that the mountainsides had been formed into terraces, like staircases that giants could climb. Had that formed naturally?

“YT-1300, you, uh, cleared for… landing pad two.”

As the Falcon lowered to the pad, she saw each ‘step’ had a pool of water with rows of plants growing out of them. About twenty wooden houses scattered here and there. Some of the villagers bent over, knee-deep in the pools of water, and seemed to be sowing or reaping.

“The Agta are farming people. Most of them have been pushed out of their ancestral lands because of the sprawling cities. They’ve managed to turn the mountains into arable land.” Ben explained. “They’re not against the First Order, I made sure of that.”

“I hope we don’t run into any further trouble.” Rey said as the Falcon landed with a jolt.

He gave a deep sigh, “I never imagined it would be this hard to look for flowers.”

Rey stood behind Ben’s chair and wrapped her arms around him. She placed her chin on his shoulder.

“I never imagined I would marry you.”

“You know you had me the moment I saw you.”

“The moment I shot Kylo Ren with Han Solo’s blaster?”

“ _Tried_ to shoot, sweetheart.”

“Thank you for letting me do this.” She said.

Ben’s eyes bared his soul for her. He turned his head to her and they kissed.

“Yes. Anything.”

 

“Resistance killed Agta’s daughters.”

Ben knew neither thousands of credits nor Jedi mind tricks would work on the chieftain of the Agta. Her face sagged with age. She wore a flowered headdress of what Ben recognized as Edelweiss, and her skirt was made of the only purple cloth her people possessed. She held onto a polished stick with a glowing orb at its tip. Her breasts laid bare, her naked feet touched the ground, and she walked towards them with the dignity of a queen.

“Resistance killed Agta’s sons.”

The air smelled of grass, waste, and enmity as Ben and Rey stood in the village center with the Agta surrounding them. Some walked barefoot or sandaled. Some wore cloth like robes, others went with mere woven skirts. Rey could see many of them had missing teeth and protruding bones from periods of famine. All of them had blasters, shivs, and faces darkened by war.

“Resistance bombed Agta homes. Left us nothing.”

Ben thought the yellow light from his wife’s saberstaff made her face look thirsty for blood. He’d have admired the splendor of her ferocity, if not for the dozens of people ready to shoot them. His own saber ignited in an electric hiss. The shadows at their feet danced with red, yellow, and orange light.

“The Resistance fought for your freedom, ma’am.” Rey said.

The chief struck the ground with her stick.

“Freedom we do not want! First Order gave us food when we hungered, thick clothes for when it stormed, and weapons to protect our families. Agta gave them our proud warriors. What did Resistance give us? Death! Nothing but death!”

“We do not want death. Just flowers for… someone dear to us.” Ben said.

The chief laid her sad eyes upon them. An Edelweiss petal fell from her hair.

“The war has taken too much – our people, our lands, our treasures. It has taken much from you too.”

She shook her head.

“But you may not take what belongs to the Agta. Return to your ship and go. Never come back. Understand?”

Ben’s saber returned to being a mere hilt.

“Yes. We understand.” He said.

“Lower weapons. Let them pass.” The chief declared, and about a hundred weapons made noise on the ground.

“Remember, Rey and Ben Solo, son of Resistance General Leia Organa.”

She strode up to them, glaring deep into their eyes.

“Remember how the Agtas defended what is ours.”

 

Ben leaned over the controls, a hand over his face. If they had attacked, he knew exactly what he would have done. He just did not know if Rey would have made it out alive.

He fought to forget the things he did under the Order.

“Ben, I’m being ridiculous. Let’s just go to Coruscant and buy something there. Hux doesn’t need flowers.”

“Rey. Do you still want them?”

She nodded.

“Are you still up for it?” He asked.

“Yes. I am.”

“That’s all I need to know. Only problem is I don’t know where else to look.” He said.

Rey hesitated.

“There’s one more planet we haven’t tried. Jakku.”

“Don’t let Finn hear you say that.”

“I’m serious.”

“That desert planet has mountains?”

“Yes. Not all of Jakku is sand.”

“Grandfather would have been glad to know that. Are you sure there are Edelweiss on Jakku?”

Rey lowered her head.

“Yes. I-I used to hold them up to the stars and think of my family.”

An asteroid grazed the Falcon’s side with a loud thwack.

“Well then. That means we must get them no matter what, don’t we?” Ben said, smirking as he laid his hand on the hyperspace drive.

 

Rey paused on the bridge. One more step and she would be on Jakku once again. The wind howled in her ear and she shaded her eyes from the desert light.

“Lead the way.” Ben said.

Yellow sand yielded under their boots. Ben covered his metal arm with a sleeve and a glove. If he’s exposed too long the grains could damage the machinery.

Ben started laughing. “I just remembered. Do you know how my grandfather wooed my grandmother? He told her he hated sand. It was course and rough and irritating. It got everywhere.”

“Impressive. He’s a better flirt than his grandson.”

“Exactly. Exactly! That’s how he charmed Queen Padme Amidala.”

“At least he didn’t render her unconscious and carry her to his ship.”

“At least she didn’t scar his face and slash off his arm.”

“Mister Solo.”

“ _Sweetheart_.”

Rey stopped at a barbed wire fence. It ran all around a hill. A sign in plain Basic said, ‘No Trespassing’.

“This used to be the hill I picked Edelweiss from.” She said.

“So, what’s wrong?” Ben drew his saber. He could make an opening for her with one slash.

“No, Ben. I don’t want any more trouble with the locals.” Rey said. She saw a person watching them, who turned away when they noticed her looking.

She pointed to a small outpost. “Maybe someone there would let us go in.”

Ben tucked away his saber and started mentally calculating the fuel cost for another hyperspace jump across the galaxy.

A young woman standing at the entrance greeted them with a bow. They did not miss the bulge of a nigh hidden weapon at her side. Rey thought that the girl had a stiffness like her husband, or like people who served in the military tended to have. She knew asking her about it would mean the business end of a blaster.

_Let me handle this, Ben. They’re my people._

“Are you here for some Knockback Nectar?” The girl asked.

Rey blinked, “Oh! _Ergel’s_ Knockback Nectar?”

“He’s my father.”

“I’ve _always_ wanted to try it!”

“Um. Okay. Sure. Ma’am.”

The girl pushed the door open and gestured for them to enter the bar. A piano player tuned at one corner. Dusty chairs around dirty tables waited for customers. The open windows let in sweltering sunlight mixed with sand. The bartender looked up when they entered.

“We don’t get a lot of humans here. What do you want?”

“We need entry to the Hill, Ergel.” Rey said, placing a small bag of credits on the table.

Ergel glanced at it and continued wiping a cup.

“There’s nothing there, ma’am.”

“Nothing but Edelweiss.”

He stopped and put the towel on the counter.

“We don’t have that here. Would you like a drink instead?”

Rey clenched her fist, eyes welling with fury.

“That’s not possible. I grew up here. I know it’s here.”

“We don’t want trouble, ma’am. Either make an order or leave.”

Their Force Bond crackled. Ben resolved to never let Rey feel as she did in that moment again. He strode up to Ergel with a hand on his saber.

“My wife _must_ have those flowers. Do you understand?”

Ergel stared at Ben’s weapon, then to the staff slung around Rey’s back.

“You’re Ben and Rey Solo.” Ergel breathed.

“Trust me, you wouldn’t want to be proven right or wrong.” Ben said.

“I… I can’t believe it. You’re right here. In my bar.”

Ergel took Rey’s hands in his and kissed them.

“Hey-?!” Ben exclaimed.

“Sir?!” Rey yelped.

“Thank you thank you thank you!”

_What’s going on?_

_This is your people, Rey. You tell me._

“You two turned the war around.” Ergel said. “The First Order took my infant daughter twenty years ago. Then I moved my family to Jakku. Thought the war couldn’t reach us here.”

“What happened to her?” Rey asked.

“You brought down the First Order and the troopers returned to their home planets. You brought my daughter back.”

He raised both hands to his mouth and called, “Ergelyn!”

The girl who stood guard looked inside the bar.

“Yes, sir?”

“I told you to call me father. Come here.”

“Yes, sir. Father.” She walked up to them, her gait stiff as a soldier’s.

“Meet my daughter, Ergelyn. Ergelyn, meet Ben and Rey Solo. They saved your life, and mine.”

“We’ve met.” She replied.

“They need a guide up the Hill. Bring them there, let them take all the Edelweiss they want.”

Rey gasped and squeezed Ben’s hand.

“Ergelyn is the best with a blaster in all of Jakku. If you need anything, you know how to reach me.” He tossed his daughter some keys, who caught it in mid-air with one hand. The girl nodded.

“Thank you, Mister Ergel.” Rey said, and they followed her outside.

 _Sweetheart,_ Ben thought through the Force Bond, _Why do I have the feeling she’ll shoot us when we reach the top?_

 

The girl opened a lock in the gate and let them through. She glared at a person watching them with hunger, as if waiting for the chance to bolt through the gate as well. Then she locked it again, and the person turned away.

A thin dirt track led up the Hill. Rey watched her own footfalls, as if retracing steps only known to her.

“Did you come from around here? Are you from Niima Outpost?” The girl asked.

“You could say that.” Rey replied. “Your father said you used to be a Stormtrooper?”

“My number was AN-913. Father said my birth name is Ergelyn.”

“What name do you prefer?” Rey asked.

“My friends call me Angie. At least they would, if I still had any.”

She looked at them to see if they would laugh. Ben had to bite back a chuckle, but she did not miss his helpless smirk.

“Are you First Order?” She asked the two of them.

“No.” Ben said.

“Oh. Would have been nice to meet someone from the Order.”

Rey looked at Ben, who shook his head. He didn’t want to reveal himself. Sometimes they don’t need the Force Bond to understand each other.

Angie had picked up a branch and batted it at flying bugs and tall grass, like a child at play.

“I miss the Order sometimes. I grew up with them, so they’re my first family.”

“You would consider a militaristic institution your family?” Ben asked.

“Some families just can’t provide. So, parents offered their infants to the Order. They get a better shot at surviving. I think that’s what my father did, but he’d never talk about it.”

“I’m sure your father didn’t want to give you up.” Rey said. She did not want to think about the family who left her on this planet. Not anymore.

“I’m sure he didn’t. But the Order gave us food, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads. They taught us how to defend ourselves. The Order raised me.”

“You have the freedom to live as you like, to speak as you like, to go anywhere you wish in the galaxy. That’s what the Resistance lived and died for – our freedom.” Rey said.

She shrugged, “You can’t be free if you don’t have anything to eat.”

At the top of the hill, a field of white Edelweiss swayed in the wind, like a galaxy full of stars. A sweet scent wafted around them. Rey gasped, covering her mouth in awe. She knelt on the ground and began picking flowers. Ben gazed at his wife and absorbed every detail of the moment, determined to remember such joy forever.

“Thank you, Angie.” Rey said when she had collected enough for a bouquet and a half.

She nodded, “Whoever you’re getting those for, they’re lucky.”

They walked back down the Hill in silence. In the bar, Ergel told them they’re always welcome back for a sip of Knockback Nectar. Angie shook her head behind him, trying to save their lives.

“Maybe next time, Ergel.” Rey said.

Ben left them a tip.

 

The Millennium Falcon jumped into hyperspace.

Rey laid the Edelweiss on a table and began arranging a bouquet.

“Ergel’s probably smuggling those flowers. If he sells enough of them he could buy Niima outpost.” Ben said.

“If he sells enough of them, there wouldn’t even be a Hill to come back to.” Rey said.

“Would you miss this planet, Rey?”

She remembered what Maz said about the belonging she sought lying, not behind, but ahead of her.

“I think I’m just going to miss Angie.”

Rey kept one blossom to the side. Later, she would press it and make it last forever.

“Could you imagine? You’re a child raised to be a soldier, to kill people. You don’t know that out there in the galaxy, your family is looking everywhere for you.”

“I don’t have to imagine.”

The more the married couple spent time with each other, the more they realized just how much they had in common.

White petals fell to the floor, soft as snow.

 

Outside the cockpit window, a red wasteland waited for them. She wrapped her face with a tan shawl, holding a bouquet of white flowers. He lowered his dark hood. They cannot risk being recognized.

“Ready?” He asked, and opened the door to a blast of warm air.

Rows upon rows of gravestones, as far as the eye can see, stood in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

They shut the Falcon behind them and began walking down the same path as they had for three years now. They bowed their heads past other tombs, for whom no family would ever come.

They stopped before a grave with neither name nor year, unmarked like a drop in the ocean.

She laid the bouquet on the ground and the wind lifted with a floral fragrance.

A wine bottle opened with a pop. He poured the liquid into three glasses. She took one. They clinked, they murmured his name, and drained the wine.

He poured the third one over the parched earth.

They did not remember a man who determined the course of the galaxy.

They did not reflect on a legacy that shook the corners of every world.

They stood there in silence, mourning a loved one that no one else truly knew.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and let me know what you felt and thought. I would appreciate it. Thank you!


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